Ask Uncle Colin: A Tangential Conundrum

I was asked to work out $\tan\br{\theta + \piby 2}$, but the formula failed because $\tan\br{\piby 2}$ is undefined. Is there another way?

– Lost Inna Mess, Infinite Trigonometry

Hi, LIMIT, and thanks for your message!

In fact, there are several ways to approach it!

Basic geometry

If you think of a triangle with vertices A $(0,0)$, B $(x,0)$ and C $(x,y)$, it’s clear that ABC is a right angle and $\tan(CAB) = \frac{x}{y}$.

If you rotate the triangle by a right angle anticlockwise, point C moves to C’ $(-y,x)$. That means $\tan\br{CAB + \piby 2} = -\frac{y}{x} = -\frac{1}{\tan(CAB)}$.

Limits

Another way is to use limits: what is the limit of $\tan\br{\theta + x}$ as $x$ gets close to $\piby 2$?

We know that the addition formula for the tangent function is $\tan(\theta + x) = \frac{\tan(\theta)+\tan(x)}{1 – \tan(\theta)\tan(x)}$. However, we can rewrite that, dividing the top and bottom by $\tan(x)$, as $\frac{\frac{\tan(\theta)}{\tan(x)} + 1}{\frac{1}{\tan(x)} – \tan(\theta)}$.